Bike Patrol Protects Women Walking Home From Subway

Bike Patrol Protects Women Walking Home From Subway

By Paula Katinas

Brooklyn Eagle

Sunset Park — The telephone hold music for the Brooklyn Bike Patrol is the theme song from the old “Batman” television series. But don’t be fooled by the moment of levity — these guys are serious about fighting crime.

Jay Ruiz, founder of the bike patrol, told Community Board Seven that he is looking to expand the safety escort program the organization has been operating since last spring.

“We service 28 subway stations. Very soon, we will be expanding to include more stations,” he told attendees at a recent meeting of Board Seven at the Sunset Park Courthouse.

Ruiz and members of the bike patrol, all of whom have received clearance from the 72nd Precinct police precinct, escort women home from local subway stations.

The patrol began on Sept. 14, 2011, in the wake of a series of sex assaults on women in Sunset Park and Park Slope that had begun in March. In many of the incidents, the attacker followed the victim from a subway station.

“On Sept. 13, I was watching a news report on NBC about a woman who was attacked. We started up our patrols the next day,” Ruiz told the Eagle in a recent interview.

Under the program, a woman can call the bike patrol and arrange for a member to meet her at a designated subway station. The member, on his bike, will meet the woman at the station and walk her home for her protection.